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I'm a IT Consultant with 720 GMAT and honor's graduate of TOP 15 US College. I'm having a really tough time deciding what to do as I'm not completely satisfied with my admissions consultant at a big firm.

While she's extremely experienced and good at what she does, I frequently feel like I'm burdening her with my questions or that I have to kind of remind her that I"m here and get her attention. We've submitted one application (to HBS) together, and while her feedback on essays is AMAZING, I don't feel like she's personally "invested" in my success.

For example, they have a 48 hr response policy and she's frequently missed it without explanation. I brought it up once early on with the manager who guaranteed it wouldn't happen again, but it continued to happen. Also, I ask her random questions on the admissions process and some of them get ignored or during phone conversations she says she hasn't looked at that yet and searches through emails to find my input. I've asked her how to improve my chances to Stanford and she said she'd look into it but never got back to me. I'm also doing all the research on schools completely on my own since she doesn't seem to offer school-specific insights. We are done with the first application and ready to start on the next, but she hasn't offered on how I should approach the next school, so I've looked it up on competitor's websites. I understand that she is busy but Is this normal? Am I expecting too much?

The thing is, I'm signed up for a 6 school package and the original terms of the contract state that I would forfeit payment once services have started At this point, I want to ask for at least a partial refund since I still have 5 schools left and haven't done any interview prep for HBS. But if they don't allow the refund, then I'm stuck and have probably ruined the relationship with the consultant.

Please advise on how I should address this issue or if I'm overreacting. I can't compare since this is my first time working with a consultant, but I imagined the process would be like having a personal coach to let me know what is next on the agenda and when I need to complete it by. She's a really sweet person and helpful when she's focused with me, so I don't want to offend her or damage her job or anything. Plus, I'm worried if I do get a refund, if the firm could try and sabotage my chances elsewhere by stating I've worked with them to admissions committees. Please provide some wisdom as this is only adding stress to an already stressful process!

I do not think you are overreacting to this situation. The business school application process should be taken as seriously by you as it is by your consultant. Also, by the sounds of your posting, you have set high personal expectations and you need to know that the application that you are submitting is going to be as competitive as it can possibly be. As you invested thousands of dollars into an advisor, I concur that you should be looking for one that meets your expectations and your requirements.

At Manhattan Review, we do not believe in a one size fits all approach to admissions consulting. We spend a great deal of time getting to know the people we work with and internalize their admissions quest as our own. You will further be matched by a person who was a full voting member of an admissions committee at a top five program and intimately knows the MBA admissions landscape. Lastly, while we do not guarantee admissions at any school, by the time you submit your application we are sure that you will feel that you submitted your best work and that your candidacy will be taken seriously by every admissions office (not to mention that we limit the number of clients that our consultants take so as not to overload them and to end up in the type of situation you are facing).

If you would like to speak about our services, please visit our web site or call our offices and our administrative people will arrange for you to speak directly with our Head of Admissions Consulting.

Sorry to hear about your predicament and I wanted to chime in. I don't want to sell you on my company's services. Rather, I wanted to focus on what you can do to work things out with your current consultant. Really, the first step is to determine if the relationship is in fact salvageable. One more thing - to be clear, the consultant you are speaking about is NOT an Amerasia consultant.

If the expectation is a 48 hour turnaround time, and she has acknowledged that was in fact her understanding, then she needs to stick with it.

However, the reality is that you need to find out what is going on behind the scenes. I would encourage you to manage the situation by doing this - speak to her on the phone and ask her what her limitations are, and how you can help her through the issue. It might be a squirmish conversation, but passive communication via email is a killer. For example - is she having personal problems? Technical issues? Try to determine if she is overwhelmed. Try to determine is if it something you can help with - perhaps putting all your questions into one email, or setting a weekly call to get her on the same page. Get it out in the open, and don't let emotion creep into the equation. Just maintain a cool composure, and that will let her maintain hers.

Also, make sure you speak with your consultant first. Don't speak to the manager or break the chain of command (I'm not saying you did in this case btw.) The reality could be that her "manager" has little control over what she does or does not do. Perhaps the manager could pair down her future workload, but that does not help you right now. In a rather unprofessional scenario, it could even hurt you if the admissions consultant decides to just "phone it in" and become even more aloof. When you do speak to your consultant, make sure you stress the material impact it has on you. For example - if she missed a deadline and that f-ed up your weekend planning - then you need to explain that and the effect it had on the rest of your week. But also consider this - if there is no material impact, then ask her if she needs more time. Tell her that it's okay if it is 4 days, rather than 2. The main point should be that she needs to tell you if it is going to be late! In turn, you will understand as long as it does not have a material impact. You are human, she is human, and shit happens. I would also make it a habit to send her an email as well on the day of the turn-around deadline, reminding her. For example, you could even ask if setting a calendar reminder for her would help. I know you do not HAVE to do it but it's an olive branch that your consultant should appreciate, unless she is a total mess.

Just reach out and find out what she needs, and that you can reasonably provide - after all, you did hire a professional. If you can't get remediation, then you escalate (again) to the manager. But you need to make it clear to your consultant that this is your intent - to escalate - that the current situation if she cannot hit deadlines. But be respectful, because you could be put in a situation where you work on 4 schools with your current consultant and then 2 more with another consultant at the same firm. It's going to be awkward if you have to compare and contrast advice all the time.

I think a very honest question to ask of your consultant is simply this - "what would you do if you were in my situation?" Then focus on describing the specific impact on you, rather than stating all the line items that she has missed. That will only put her on the defensive.

If you want a coaching template, I like using this model -

Define your expectation, explain the deviation from that expectation, describe its impact on you/your app, get her side of the story, now collaboratively set a new and reasonable expectation, get agreement, follow up on it in a week, two weeks, etc. If she shits the bed again, then escalate.

Respectfully,Paul Lanzillotti

liebe wrote:

I'm a IT Consultant with 720 GMAT and honor's graduate of TOP 15 US College. I'm having a really tough time deciding what to do as I'm not completely satisfied with my admissions consultant at a big firm.

While she's extremely experienced and good at what she does, I frequently feel like I'm burdening her with my questions or that I have to kind of remind her that I"m here and get her attention. We've submitted one application (to HBS) together, and while her feedback on essays is AMAZING, I don't feel like she's personally "invested" in my success.

For example, they have a 48 hr response policy and she's frequently missed it without explanation. I brought it up once early on with the manager who guaranteed it wouldn't happen again, but it continued to happen. Also, I ask her random questions on the admissions process and some of them get ignored or during phone conversations she says she hasn't looked at that yet and searches through emails to find my input. I've asked her how to improve my chances to Stanford and she said she'd look into it but never got back to me. I'm also doing all the research on schools completely on my own since she doesn't seem to offer school-specific insights. We are done with the first application and ready to start on the next, but she hasn't offered on how I should approach the next school, so I've looked it up on competitor's websites. I understand that she is busy but Is this normal? Am I expecting too much?

The thing is, I'm signed up for a 6 school package and the original terms of the contract state that I would forfeit payment once services have started At this point, I want to ask for at least a partial refund since I still have 5 schools left and haven't done any interview prep for HBS. But if they don't allow the refund, then I'm stuck and have probably ruined the relationship with the consultant.

Please advise on how I should address this issue or if I'm overreacting. I can't compare since this is my first time working with a consultant, but I imagined the process would be like having a personal coach to let me know what is next on the agenda and when I need to complete it by. She's a really sweet person and helpful when she's focused with me, so I don't want to offend her or damage her job or anything. Plus, I'm worried if I do get a refund, if the firm could try and sabotage my chances elsewhere by stating I've worked with them to admissions committees. Please provide some wisdom as this is only adding stress to an already stressful process!

One more thing - to be clear, the consultant you are speaking about is NOT an Amerasia consultant.

Yes, this is NOT an Amerasia consultant or anyone who has responded here.

Quote:

If the expectation is a 48 hour turnaround time, and she has acknowledged that was in fact her understanding, then she needs to stick with it.

However, the reality is that you need to find out what is going on behind the scenes. I would encourage you to manage the situation by doing this - speak to her on the phone and ask her what her limitations are, and how you can help her through the issue. It might be a squirmish conversation, but passive communication via email is a killer. For example - is she having personal problems? Technical issues? Try to determine if she is overwhelmed. Try to determine is if it something you can help with - perhaps putting all your questions into one email, or setting a weekly call to get her on the same page. Get it out in the open, and don't let emotion creep into the equation. Just maintain a cool composure, and that will let her maintain hers.

Would doing this over email be fine? I've never called up out of the blue as we "schedule" our phone chats (we've had 3 thus far).

Quote:

When you do speak to your consultant, make sure you stress the material impact it has on you. For example - if she missed a deadline and that f-ed up your weekend planning - then you need to explain that and the effect it had on the rest of your week. But also consider this - if there is no material impact, then ask her if she needs more time. Tell her that it's okay if it is 4 days, rather than 2. The main point should be that she needs to tell you if it is going to be late! In turn, you will understand as long as it does not have a material impact. You are human, she is human, and shit happens.

While she hasn't missed an app deadline, there was an instance when I submitted my resume and wanted feedback so I could prepare it and move onto essays for the HBS app with two weeks left, but I didn't receive a response for several days. In that instance, she wrote back several days later with a response stating she was sick which is completely understandable, but it would have been nice to know as I just waited. Just a brief, "I'm sick so I will get back to you later" would have been nice, as it affected my other processes.I ended up hiring an hourly person at another firm for additional help to get more HBS specific insight on an essay as well.

When I changed a school choice for the future, she seemed audibly annoyed as well and never got back on how I could strengthen my position for Stanford.I hate to escalate or address it too directly either, since it's nothing personal and she's good at her job. I'm afraid doing so would ruin the working relationship if I'm stuck working with her.

Quote:

If you want a coaching template, I like using this model -

Define your expectation, explain the deviation from that expectation, describe its impact on you/your app, get her side of the story, now collaboratively set a new and reasonable expectation, get agreement, follow up on it in a week, two weeks, etc. If she shits the bed again, then escalate.

I will try this. Again, I would not complain if I had not spent almost $10 grand for the services, and it was not important for my future. I wanted to be sure I was not demanding too much through this forum. I appreciate her help with my HBS app, but I really wish at this point I could try elsewhere if this type of service is not standard. Thank you again Paul~!

Sounds tough. My suggestion is that if you are stuck in a contract with a specific firm, maybe then ask for a change of consultants. Even if the quality control of the service at that firm may be lacking, there are for sure consultants who work there who will take their job more seriously. And I think that with such problems (especially if you are 'stuck'), if you take a non-confrontational way, and approach the company asking to change to a consultant who is known to be a bit more reliable, etc, you may be able to "save" your work with them, and get the most out of it, in what is a less than ideal situation. _________________

I am really sorry to know about your situation. Since other consultants have already provided their valuable insight on this issue , I will not provide you any more advice . Also, I am hoping that by now ( it’s almost a week since you posted this) you must have arrived at some resolution to the problem.However, I would like to use this forum to offer my perspective on some of your questions/ doubts.

"I understand that she is busy but is this normal? Am I expecting too much? "

No it is not at all normal, and you are NOT expecting too much. In fact, you are being too nice.

"I imagined the process would be like having a personal coach to let me know what is next on the agenda and when I need to complete it by.You “imagined “it right. Partnering with an admission consultant entails getting personal coaching/guidance, setting deadlines, and honoring them. However, if for some unavoidable reason, we (admission consultants) are not able to adhere to the deadlines, we are obligated to notify the applicants rather than having them make guesses if we are sick or overwhelmed with assignments. We are there to help them with the application process, and not add to their stress.

"I'm worried if I do get a refund, if the firm could try and sabotage my chances."

It is sad situation that at a time when you should be focusing only on your apps, you have been compelled to worry about so many other things – partial refund of your money, fear of sabotage by the big firm you have partnered with.

"Please advise … if I'm overreacting."

No, you are not at all overreacting. As stated earlier, once you sign up with a company, your consultant is expected to be equally involved in the process and guide/ coach you at every step of the way.

I hope and wish that the issue has been resolved by now.

Wishing you all the best with your application process for the remaining five schools,

Poonam _________________

MyEssayReview - A personalized and dedicated essay-review service Email:poonam@myessayreview.com